His best timing was the 45.59 second he clocked in the National Circuit Meet in New Delhi earlier this year which got him a ticket to Athens.

Binu will now aim to become only the fourth Indian male athlete to qualify for a track final in the Olympics following the efforts of Milkha Singh (400m, Rome 1960), Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (110m hurdles, Tokyo 1964) and Sriram Singh (800m, 1976 Montreal).

The three-heat semi-finals are to be held on Saturday.

In heptathlon, J J Sobha was trailing in 12th place, in a field of 34, with 4560 points after five events while Soma Biswas was further behind on the 26th spot (4273).

Leading the pack was world record holder Carolina Kluft of Sweden (5208 points) and Kelly Sotherton of Britain (4879).

Yesterday, Shobha won the third place in heat no. 3, clocking 13.53 seconds, her personal best. Biswas also produced her career-best, lunging 1.70m in high jump on her fifth effort.